Ah Dr. Charles. Thank you for talking some sense about the big pharmacy business.
I completley concur with his observations on the evils of big chain vs. small pharmacies. I had a Long's Drugs (is that only a California chain?) actually lose my insurance card, which I must say was supremely helpful when they tried to charge me full price for my medications.
On top of that, the chain pharmacies are always unbelievably busy -- you have to wait forever for your meds, and their pharmacists seem overworked and stressed. They don't recognize me either. Whereas at my local pharmacy two blocks from my house in Kansas City, I ran into one of the women employees (who's at least 80 now) freshly off my crutches and her eyes almost teared up she was so happy to see I'd made progress.